A recent graphics trend is the return to the so called "8-bit" style, bringing pixel art back in its oldest form, but revisiting it with modern aesthetics. A mix of 80's nostalgia and a quest for a simpler and essential form of visual expression, pixel art has surged in popularity amongst designers of all trades: advertising, videos, and also games for the latest Apple iOS and Android powered tablet devices.

Some of these products are particularly well done from both an artistica as well as a technical point of view. At first sight pixel art might seem just low resolution pixelated graphics, and our brain probably fills a lot of the "missing" detail for us, but the way this detail was sort of removed by the author leaves some intentional spots for our imagination to play around in. Pixel art can be creative for the artist as well as for the viewer.

We have already mentioned Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, a splendid showcase of pixel art graphics in games designed by Craig D. Adams (aka Superbrothers), but if we look more closely there are other examples of his pixel art works, such as the following two very essential characters:

Tiny Tower is an iPhone and iPad game from NimbleBit (creators of Pocket Frogs) and 2011's iPhone App of the Year. A curios example of art style vs "simple" high graphical fidelity comes from watching Tiny Tower's clone made by Zynga. The art assets are polished, seem to be quite high resolution assets too, and there are more decorative elements. The graphics in this title are nice indeed in purely technical terms, but they lack personality and charm compared to Tiny Tower.

The flash game Bear Pursuit was developed starting from his animated sprite bearing the same name (no pun intended). I really love this graphics style, attempting to reduce shapes to their most basics essential blocks. The pixel is the smallest form of expression but also the smallest unit of imagination.

There are also artists, such as Paul Robertson, who love creating exaggerated and overcrowded compositions: his works are anything but minimalistic, they represent psychedelic bundle of characters in surreal situations.

The pixel art landscape is vast and surely not trivial or trite. There are various examples of very personalized art style between amateurs as well as professional artists, all capable to bring their own personal touch to the pixel art style.

There are two examples of this that I have recently discovered on DeviantArt. The first one is Metaru for a very basic yet characteristic and distinguished style

I would like to thank Pixel for his creative input that helped with this post. Pixel, amongst his many interests, explores the language of pixel art in first person by drawing himself and the people around him in 8-bit style.